Consumers not yet warming to new light bulbs

[tonycarguy]

Originally Posted By: NJC
Incandescent longevity is also poor too, along with some of the CFL's. I've had a few burn out prematurely, and some of the early USA-made Sylvania's are still going strong after many years (maybe 8?).

Good info about the LED's - I won't bother stocking up anymore CFL's.


CFL's longevity is dependent on how many hours they are burning.

Incandescent's longevity is dependent on how many on-off cycles they endure. If you rarely cycle them, they last almost forever. My doorbell button and my house's house-number sign are lit by incandescents 24/7. The bulbs have never been changed in 20+ years.

 

[tonycarguy]

Originally Posted By: Quest
@NJC:

It would take many more years for LED technology to both mature and also come down in pricing...so CFL is going to be around for the next (my humble guess) decade or 2 until LED pricing becomes competitive to that of CFL.


My humble guess is LED won't be as cheap as CFL's for 25+ years unless the govnt introduces tough restrictions on how CFLs can be made. I first read about LED cluster bulbs in the late 90s, so it's not like they're new technology. Ten years ago you could buy clusters of LED bulbs that was shaped like a 100w incandescent. Yet today they're barely any cheaper than back then. 10 years is not a long time in the lightbulb industry. They move like molasses

 

[Quest]

Originally Posted By: tonycarguy


CFL's longevity is dependent on how many hours they are burning.

Incandescent's longevity is dependent on how many on-off cycles they endure. If you rarely cycle them, they last almost forever. My doorbell button and my house's house-number sign are lit by incandescents 24/7. The bulbs have never been changed in 20+ years.


Due to poor quality and inconsistent QA control, most CFL dies prematurely due to otherwise resolvable (abeit costly but definitely doable) built-in electronic ballast failures. The higher their operational temperature, the sooner/more drastic their failure mode is. By and large: the tube in CFL is no different to that of regular straight/bent fluorescent lighting tubes in a sense that the tube itself can sustain their projected sevice life other than open filaments on either end (which, if you happen to have those high PF electronic ballasts that connects each end of T12/T8 in parallel, you may still be able to get it to working somewhat).

Incandescent filament lightbulbs: the failure has to do with the tungsten filament metal gradually "evaporates" away from the weakest point of the entire drawn glowing filament section, and eventually, the "thinnest" part of that filament will give way first as that part experiences the most current (and just burn out). frequently power cycling contributes to the failure by means of current shock to the "thinned" part of the filament.

 

[Tempest]

Quote:
I could see that while NA in general has been a leader in terms of many global developments including certain technology sectors, etc. but when it comes to energy consumption/efficiency per capita (or even per person), we are definitely trailing behind...

Based on who's metric??